Death Eaters Come to Cardiff
by aldursdisciple12
Summary: Death Eaters come to Cardiff.   I suck at summaries...


Death Eaters Come to Cardiff

I don't own anything, except the computer I typed this on.

Jack was out for a walk. He was starting to get antsy, just sitting in his little flat whenever he wasn't at the Hub, or doing a job for Torchwood. Waiting for the Doctor to show up was harder than he thought. So, every once in a while, he went for a walk. Got into a fight that he knew he couldn't win, or did something so stupid he would be wincing about it for days to come, because he needed to feel that edge that he had, travelling with the Doctor. He needed to feel alive again

And this led him to an alleyway in Cardiff, where three figures in black cloaks and masks seem to be torturing two teenagers, no more than sixteen by the looks of things. He rushed in, gun drawn. This was just the kind of suicidal fight he was looking for. The torturers seemed to be using slender pieces of wood pointed at the youths, and Jack didn't think that they were human. Jack didn't know how the sticks worked, and he didn't much care. This was the kind of thing that the Doctor would have stopped, and that was good enough for him. He raced into the alley as he drew his gun, and the last thing he saw before he died was a flash of green light from one of the sticks. The last thing he heard was "Avada Kedavra".

* * *

Fabian ran through the streets of Cardiff. He hoped that they weren't too late. The Order had received information that Death Eaters were going on a muggle hunt in the more seedy areas of town, and Fabian, James, and Mad-Eye were the only ones available to come out to help. By the time they arrived at the alley, though, it was too late. The Death Eaters turned on a man who had entered at the other end of the alley and killed him, before turning their attention back to the muggles who had been their original prey.

Fabian and the others made short work of the Death Eaters. They were junior members, and were no match for Moody alone, even when they took him on together, not noticing Fabian or James, which made it very easy for the less experienced Order members to get to the muggles and take them out of the line of fire. By the time they were healed and had their memories wiped, Mad-Eye had finished with the Death Eaters and was ready to take them to the Ministry.

"What about the body?" James asked when Moody told them to help him with the unconscious Death Eaters.

"I'll take care of him," Fabian told him. "You go help Mad-Eye."

James and Moody nodded, and left Fabian alone with the body of the muggle. He walked over, and sighed. _This is the worst part of the war_, he thought to himself. _The innocent dying in a fight that they know nothing about, in such a way that their families can never get closure._ He hoped that, if he went during this war, it wasn't in such a way that his family would be stuck wondering what happened to him, hoping beyond hope that he was still alive.

He sighed again, and knelt down next to the body. The man was good looking, he noted, if dressed oddly compared to other muggles that he had seen. He wore a great coat, and braces. His gun was, according to the Muggle Studies classes Fabian had taken, older than most muggles would have carried around on their person. His eyes were open, and just as Fabian went to close them, the man drew in a sudden breath of air.

Fabian jerked backwards in shock. _This isn't possible!_ He thought, his heart racing. The stranger sat up, and Fabian reacted instinctively, sending a hex in his direction. His aim wasn't as good as it could have been (though better than expected, given the circumstances), and a rubbish bin next to the formerly-dead man exploded, sending shrapnel tearing through the muggle, killing him for a second time.

Fabian knelt there, panting. _At least now I don't have to come up with a probable cause of death,_ he thought, trying to come up with a bright side for having killed the man for a second time, and failing miserably.

* * *

Jack awoke with a gasp, and tried to remember what had happened. He had been running to the alley, he had been hit by the strange green light… His brow furrowed as he tried to remember what had happened next. He had woken up. There had been someone there...

Then it hit him. The man that had been there had been shocked by Jack coming back to life, and his wooden stick had discharged some light, and a _dust bin_ had exploded. He couldn't stop the chuckle from escaping his lips. He had died by exploding dust bin. _That _was new! He had never died by dust bin before.

"What's so funny?" A strange voice asked. It sounded as though the speaker was barely staving off a fit of hysterics. Jack turned to look at the source of the voice. It was the man that had caused the bin to explode.

"I've never died by exploding dust bin before," he stated matter-of-factly. The other man looked at him in confusion as he tried to process this bit of information.

"Right," he said. "I'm sure that is rather funny, I guess. Wait…" he frowned, his brain going over Jack's sentence in his mind. "You said you'd never died that way before? You mean, you've _DIED_ before?"

Jack mentally swore. He normally had a better grip on his tongue when he came back from the dead. But this time, he had told a complete stranger the biggest secret in his life. Torchwood was going to kill him. Over and over and over.

"Maybe," he hedged, trying to buy him some time to figure out how to knock this man out without being blasted by the stick again. "How did you make the bin explode? And what was the green light from before?" He saw, with satisfaction, the other man swallow nervously. Obviously, he had been hoping that Jack wouldn't ask about that. Jack felt sorry for him suddenly. He was young, and this was probably very weird for him. He decided to take pity on the man.

"My name's Jack. What's yours?"

"Fabian."

"Well, Fabian, would you like to have this conversation here, in this alley with the nasty smelling trash everywhere, or would you rather have it in a café with tea, or coffee?" Jack smiled, trying to put Fabian at ease. It seemed to work, as he got a tentative smile back.

"A café sounds lovely."

* * *

Three hours later, they were still sitting in the small table that they had arrived at earlier. Once Fabian had relaxed, and Jack got his retcon ready, they had begun to talk in earnest. Jack told Fabian about Torchwood, being brought back to life by a friend, and how he couldn't die. In return, Fabian told him that he was a wizard, and how there was a secret world living alongside Jack's own. He told Jack about the war raging in that world, and how hard it was becoming to keep the wizards hidden. The conversation turned to aliens, and magical creatures, and then to the unique worlds that they each inhabited. Jack told him of the strange and beautiful planets he had seen, the aliens he had encountered with Rose and the Doctor, and the history of Earth that he had been witness to. Fabian related stories of his childhood, and of the mischief he and his brother, Gideon, had gotten up to in Hogwarts. They reminisced about friends lost, battles they hadn't won, and when the café finally closed and kicked them out, they didn't separate, but instead wandered down the streets together. They hadn't realized until then that they had been missing something, that there was something they needed. They needed someone to talk to, someone who knew nothing of them, someone to confide in, who was not part of their respective worlds, and therefore safe. Jack had slipped the retcon back into its bottle, and Fabian decided not to wipe the muggle's mind. And when their meanderings let their way back to Jack's flat, they wordlessly slipped through the door to the bedroom together.

* * *

Three days later, Jack was whistling as he left the Hub. He hadn't connected the dots that the wizards he had seen in the alley were the same people that Albus had belonged to. He hadn't thought of the boy in over a century, and the encounter had been pushed to the back of his mind. But it had been brought to the front of his mind after meeting Fabian, who he decided reminded him very much of the wizard he had met many years ago, in the future. They both were full of fire, both needed to right wrongs and keep the scales of justice level.

Thinking of Fabian made him smile. The man was young, and full of youthful energy. The night they had met had ended up being very, very fun. Fabian had had to leave, but promised to be back three nights later, in the same café. Jack was headed there, even if he had to shoot all of Torchwood in order to get the night off. Luckily, that hadn't been necessary.

But there was no Fabian in the café. Jack waited for hours, constantly reordering his tea, and making numerous trips to the toilet. It wasn't until close to closing that someone showed up, and headed towards Jack's table. The plump red-headed woman greatly resembled Fabian, and Jack instantly guessed her to be either his sister or his cousin. He watched her nervously, hoping that she wasn't bearing bad news. She stood next to his table.

"Are you Jack?" she asked. He nodded. Upon closer inspection, he could see that she had been crying, her eyes red and puffy.

"My name is Molly. Fabian was my brother."

Yep, she was the bearer of bad news.

"What…" he had to stop to clear his throat. "What happened?"

"There was an attack. They knew where he was meeting other members of the Order, and he didn't make it. He gave me a letter, before he went. Said that if anything happened…" she stopped, trying to keep herself from crying. Jack waited patiently as she pulled herself together. "He said that anything happened, I was to take it to you. He gave me a very detailed description. Here." She thrust an envelope in Jack's general direction. Her eyes had misted over in tears, and she couldn't see clearly through them. Jack took the letter gently. The envelope was heavy, and he guessed that it was made of parchment.

"When did it happen?" he asked softly.

"Last night." Jack had been working for Torchwood last night. Not that it mattered, since there wasn't anything he could have done.

"Thank you Molly. I'm sorry."

Molly managed a small smile through her tears, nodded once in his direction, and left the café. Jack followed shortly after, once he could get his body to cooperate. He headed back to his flat, and sat down on the bed, before opening the letter.

He began to cry as he read the contents. Fabian hoped that this letter would never be delivered, but he didn't want Jack to be waiting for him if something bad happened. He had had a great time that night, and wanted to make sure that Jack knew that he hadn't abandoned him, that he hadn't just left. He didn't want Jack to be waiting patiently for two men. He ended the letter telling Jack that he loved him.


End file.
